


Out of Order

by Oparu



Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-07
Updated: 2010-03-07
Packaged: 2017-10-07 19:04:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/68222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oparu/pseuds/Oparu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam, Jack and a very pregnant Elizabeth accidently jump back in time three years, right before the Atlantis expedition was about to arrive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Out of Order

"You'll be back in two hours," John insisted as he stood next to the flickering blue light of the stargate. "If it's longer than two hours, you have to call. If you don't call, I'm sending Ronon to get you. He doesn't like IOA guys, he'll be happy to shoot them and break you out."

Elizabeth glanced over at the massive Satedan who just patted his gun and smiled. "I'll be back," she promised lightly. "You could come with me," she offered as he rubbed his left hand over her swollen belly. "Sit in meetings, listen to the IOA blather."

Scowling at her, John rubbed his thumb over the protrusion that was their child's foot and turned to his daughter in Teyla's arms. "What do you think, munchkin? Want to go to Earth?"

Evie shook her head slowly as she watched Ronon make the same motion. Clapping her chubby hands together she squirmed down from Teylaatlan's arms and took a direct route to the huge man. Ronon scooped her up with one hand and made her squeal with glee.

"Be safe," John warned protectively as he leaned down to kiss her belly through her black shirt. "Don't hurt anyone just because they're trying to limit the amount of donuts you get."

"I don't get all the donuts?" Elizabeth joked as Ronon brought Evie by for a goodbye kiss before the little girl flew off to explore something down by the east pier. "Wait, I'm not going then. Sam can deal with the IOA on her own or drag you along instead."

John rolled his eyes towards the ceiling in mocking dismay before he bent to kiss her cheek. "I'll call ahead to the SGC and tell them to get extra food. Lots of extra food."

"I think she's just making up for everything she threw up, way back when she was afraid of food," Jack quipped as he brushed his hands against his trousers and got ready to go through the 'gate. "There was a month or so where I didn't think she was eating anything."

"Not keeping anything down was more like it," John added with old concern that still darkened his eyes.

Elizabeth just smiled softly and pulled him down so she could kiss him. "It got better," she reminded him as she leaned into his chest. "It was really just that trip that was hard."

"Everything else has been so easy," he replied sardonically. "Your ankles, your breasts, your knees, your back, the way he or she kicks at night--"

Pulling herself back to kiss him goodbye, she stared into his eyes and softened her expression. "You were charming before you were such a worrywart," she teased. "Remember that?"

"Vaguely," he murmured back before he kissed her again. John lingered longer than he usually would have in public, and Elizabeth tried to decide why Jack wasn't breaking them up. The retired general just waited for them, patiently watched the ripples of the event horizon as if he hadn't seen them a few hundred times before. "I'll be right here when you get back."

"I'll be gone two whole hours!" she protested laughing faintly as his green eyes remained full of worry. "John--"

"I'll be here," he finished without explaining the regret in his expression. "'Lizabeth?"

Standing just in front of the event horizon, with her belly nearly touching the ripplng surface, Elizabeth paused. "Yes?"

"Leave Earth some donuts?" he pleaded with a ghost of a smile.

Shaking her head, Elizabeth disappeared through the event horizon. Jack took a step sideways towards John as the other man's eyes remained firmly on his wife. "This is it, isn't it?" the older man asked in a whisper.

"Yeah," John muttered towards is feet. "Take care of her."

"Right," Jack whispered back as he straightened himself. "There's that. I'll see you when it's over then--"

"Yeah," John repeated as he started to bite his lip. "Please go before I--"

Startling slightly, Jack nodded as he realized what John was thinking. "Good idea that."  


* * *

Sam looked faintly pale. Elizabeth was certain she was the only one who noticed because everyone else at the SGC seemed distracted by the way her stomach was stretching the limits of her simple black shirt. It had been odd enough the first time around that the leader of the Atlantis expedition had fallen pregnant so quickly into the mission. She supposed then it was because Earth had expected it would take a little longer than a year for the expedition to start establishing relationships in the event of broken contact.

She'd been pregnant with Evelyn the first time she'd returned to Earth. General Landry had been shocked and tried immediately to replace John with Colonel Caldwell. The IOA had tried to get both of them fired. Jack had done something, she still wasn't sure what, and one short phone call from the president had left Elizabeth and John alone to pursue their relationship as they saw fit. She'd always meant to ask him exactly what he had said, but never really taken the iniative.

Sam's greeting for her husband was shorter than John's goodbye kiss, but Jack's hand lingered in hers as they headed for the briefing room and the IOA. Woolsey was in the center of the curved table, and the Chinese and Russian representatives flanked him. On the outside were the new additions, the French, British and German attaches to the SGC had been added at that year's meeting of the UN security council. France and Russia were both represented by women, and Elizabeth tried to tell if their reactions to her condition were any better than those of their male counterparts.

The Russia representative's exceedingly trim figure suggested she had never had children, but the French representative's face softened slightly as Elizabeth sighed her way gratefully into a chair. Her back was especially bad today, and she'd thought twice that calling off the meeting might be better for her body; ironically, it had been John who ended up telling her to go. There'd been something funny in his eyes when he'd suggested it, but she'd listened because he so rarely had an opinion about such things.

Sam's chair was a little closer to Jack's than it was to the French representative and that little fact made Elizabeth smile slightly. It was harder for Sam and Jack to insinuate their relationship into their working relationship; even with Jack retired and working purely from a political space, they werent yet comfortable beng husband and wife in front of the IOA and the military.

"I apologize for dragging you across two galaxies in your condition," Woolsey began with a hint of real regret in his voice.

"My condition is deeply my own fault," Elizabeth teased lightly to try and break the mood. "Traveling through the 'gate is actually a fairly pleasant period of time where I forget the extra fifteen kilos I have in front of me."

Jack smirked. Sam's sudden, impossibly brilliant, smile, Elizabeth caught only out of the corner of her eye, but it hint her like a flashing marquee. Sam was pale. She was nearly ten centimeters closer to Jack's chair than she usually let herself be and she was smiling. The IOA were getting ready to go over everything she and Elizabeth had done in charge of the city for the last six months and Sam was smiling. A glance out of the corner of her eye told Elizabeth that Jack didn't know. He didn't have the overprotective look John had, and she knew the general enough to expect it.

Woolsey started to speak again and Elizabeth let herself sink into a pleasant autopilot. Sam wasn't going to be paying much attention to any of the questions, and she did owe the other couple for a great deal of her happiness. The least she could do was be pleasant to the IOA.  


* * *

"Two hours, forty-three minutes," Jack read off his watch as he stared towards the g'gate as it began to dial. "How many times has Atlantis checked in?" he yelled up to Walter as the 'gate creaked around to the next chevron. "Three? Eight? Twenty-two?"

"General Landry won the pool at sixteen, sir," Walter yelled down as the general nodded pompously behind him. "You were close."

Glaring at the general, Jack stuffed his free hand into his pocket and continued letting Sam cling to his other hand. She'd been like that for the last two hours and though it was odd, it was rather nice to feel needed and necessary. He couldn't remember anything special John had told him about Sam. Still, he hoped that she'd done her homework like he had asked her, and having read everything John could have snuck to him without Keller or Beckett noticing.

Still wishing he had more than his pocketknife on him, Jack made sure Elizabeth was directly at his side and stepped through the 'gate. As he'd suspected, they arrived in Atlantis after the bright green tunnel abated. H was till chilled from the void as he looked around and realized that John had been completely right. This was the wrong Atlantis.

The air was stale, the control panels were covered with white dust cloths and the windows were blue as the light filtered through the ocean. Elizabeth and Sam took a few moments longer than him to realize what was happening. Elizabeth took it rather well and simply sat down on the floor by the 'gate as it shut off. She crossed her legs slowly, cursed once under her breath and just stared.

"Fuck me," Sam whispered just softly enough that only he heard her. "We should--" she began as she released his hand and headed immediately to the controls. Jack watched her go and sat down next to Elizabeth.

"Feet?" he asked as he tried to get comfortable against the wall.

Elizabeth stopped looking around and turned her eyes to him. "Back," she corrected as she tried not to furrow her eyebrows. "Too many meetings."

"Right," Jack agreed lazily watching Sam attack the consoles. "It has nothing to do with the rearrangement of your internal organs."

"Nothing at all," Elizabeth joined him in joking. "It'll be nice to have Sam home," she ventured cheerfully trying to ignore the fact that they seemed to be in right place at most definitely the wrong time. "I'll bet you've missed her."

"I've had the covers to myself," Jack replied lightly returning her optimism. "However, I'm starting to think that's overrated."

"Only slightly," Elizabeth grinned at him before her eyebrows tightened in sudden frustration. "Ever have one of those paches you just can't place? You know something's out of whack but you just can't--"

"Like a tangle on a fishing line?" he asked as he buried his instinctual blast of fear. John had said he wouldn't have a lot of time. The younger man had impressed on him how quickly the whole situation had changed in his account-- Jack paused when his mind complained that he was relying on a story he hadn't told John yet. Let alone the fact that John didn't know the story to tell him. "You okay?" he asked Elizabeth when she started to stare past him at the soft blue water outside the stained glass-like window.

Her eyes didn't look at him and her hands twitched on her thighs. "Just a little foggy," she offered vaguely. "Maybe it's deja vu."

Sam hurried down the stairs towards them and reported quickly. "We're in Atlantis, but as far as I can tell, somehow, we're nearly three years in the past."

"Three years?" Jack repeated as if he didn't know what was going on. "Shouldn't a svelter Elizabeth be leading her team through that 'gate rather soonish?"

His wife looked nearly as distracted as Elizabeth and Jack wondered if he was going to have to be the one to figure out how to get them out of here. John hadn't told him that part, and he assumed it was because he- the future him- hadn't told John. Perhaps Sam's miracle plan, he knew that had to be the answer, didn't work until the city was above the ocean, or didn't work until after the expedition arrived. Maybe they needed to get through something else first.

Elizabeth had missed his joke and mentally Jack made a note of that. Sam was staring at him, but there was something other than blazing intellect working behind her eyes. No matter how long he was there, his little adventure was going to be interesting. Patting the floor next to him, Jack suggested Sam sit.

"I don't know how it happened," she thought aloud as she slipped to the floor next to him. "There were no solar flares, strange interstellar phenonmenon. Nothing that would make us end up here."

Jack shrugged and reached for her hands. Holding both of them inside of his, he stared at them thoughtfully. "At least none that we could detect," he reminded her.

"Yeah--" Sam trailed off and she stared up at the surface of the water through the windows. "You're right about the expedition. The power levels of the ZPM are nearly exactly what McKay noted in his first report. In fact, we should consider moving to an unexplored room, something Elizabeth's people didn't look in immediately so we don't accidently change the timeline."

Groaning as he shook his head, Jack hoped this wasn't going to be one of those moments. John's suggestions had been vague, and he guessed his own suggestions had been equally vague. Why had he been so mysterious? He could have just written himself a damn note.

Turning thoughtfully to Elizabeth, Sam ignored his melancholy mood. "Where didn't you go right away?"

It took Elizabeth a moment to speak. Jack bit his lip and wondered how long it would be before she said something and her excessive quiet turned into a problem. He remembered how she'd gone into labor with Evelyn, and how unlike Sara, she'd gone quiet and introspective first. She hadn't known why John had been so calm. Jenn and Carson were both surprised. John had managed to lie fairly well, Jack had to give him credit for that.

Elizabeth sighed and shifted slightly against the wall. "After we found the life signs detectors we searched most of the city that was above water. Sumner-" she paused and Jack could hear her reset her voice mentally. "Was rather thorough."

Jack clapped his hands together once and started dragging himself to his feet. "Puddle jumper," he explained as both women looked at him. "Cloaked, no life signs, no power signature, as long as no one walks into us, we're fine. Elizabeth, you at least need to hide. Sam and I won't screw up the timeline that much, but you'd need some explaining."

That earned him half a smile from Elizabeth as he helped her to her feet. Her hands clung to him a little longer than she would have usually allowed herself, and he missed the way Sam clung to the wall momentarily before she got her balance. Jack kept a hand on Elizabeth's back instead of waiting for her to stumble. "Bay two is on the upper level, less foot traffic up there and we can take the transporter."

Elizabeth's tiny smile of gratitude made him grin.

"Hey, you're only a few weeks away from freedom, right?" he teased as he led her towards the transporter. Sam had buried herself in the control panels and was trying to figure out how they could get back. He admired that about her.

"Days," Elizabeth corrected softly. "I'm still-" she paused and it was more than finding her footing on the stairs that made her lose her place in thought. "-Surprised John let me go at all," she finished with mild amusement.

"Wishing he'd decided to come with?" Jack asked thoughtfully. He'd wondered that as well, but John hadn't come up with anything in his briefing. He made a mental note to smack himself again for being so vague.

"A little," she admitted faintly holding his hand a little tighter. "Sam will figure it out."

"That's why I keep her around," Jack agreed lazily. "She's nearly as smart as she is pretty."  


* * *

Sam hit the console for a third time and glared at it. Between the strange way her eyes seemed to get tired faster now and the way her headaches had moved from the place behind her eyes to the middle of her head was deeply annoying. Was it going to be like this the whole time? Her work habits were going to have to change. Her rucksack lay at her feet. Jack was certainly concerned about Elizabeth and she couldn't blame him.

She felt her own stomach twist as she imagined facing Elizabeth's situation. Elizabeth had been the only one unconcerned. The only one who didn't think visiting the SGC so close to her due date was a mistake. When she'd seen the news that Elizabeth would come, she'd been surprised John had let her. More surprised John wasn't demanding to come along.

She'd have to be more careful. This was their first child, likely their only chance to have one given their advancing ages. This was an unrepeatable experiment and one she had to put out of her mind long enough to find a way home. Digging through the layers of Ancient computer programs, she searched until she found the ZPM readouts. There was enough power, they could muster dialing Earth if she could figure out how to trigger the fail safe while they still had enough power to return. She'd have to rig something else when they got back to Earth, figure out how to save the timeline.

The idea of going all the way back to Earth troubled her, perhaps there was an easier way. A simpler way to get them ahead the three years of time they needed without bouncing through Earth. If she could figure out how they'd gotten there, solar flare, dark matter or some kind of heavy interstellar object. Her head floated between pain and an odd sense of disconnection. She couldn't think the way she usually could. She couldn't wrap her head around the problem and take it apart the way she usually did.

As she kicked her bag she remembered there were two radios in the bottom. Something Jack had taught her to pack, and she'd never stopped listening. There was food in the bottom as well. MREs were awful, but they were food. There was water in the city, so they'd be all right for sometime if necessary. Hitting herself for not remember the radios sooner, Sam grabbed her bag, tucked one of her radios into her pocket and headed for the jumper bay.  


* * *

"What made you come?" Elizabeth asked as she tried to get comfortable in the front of the jumper. His hand stayed on her face a moment, though he wasn't John it comforted her slightly. There was sweat along her hairline and it was from more than just the stairs up to the jumper. "You didn't have to."

"There's this husband," Jack began to explain as he tucked her hair behind her ear. "He, uh, well, he's a little overprotective, and we overprotective husbands have to stick together. Makes us look less foolish when we're in groups."

Her eyes closed for a moment and Jack ran the fingers of his free hand over his pocketknife. He had string with it. John reminded him that he didn't have anything else. He couldn't. "John asked me to go," he continued when Elizabeth opened her eyes again. "I have always liked him. Now, you rest, and I'll go see what my genius wife is up to."

Her small hand covered his on her face for a moment, and Jack saw her acceptance in her eyes. She'd make do because she had to, because she trusted him and Sam to take care of her. Her breath caught once in her throat and neither of them commented on it.

Her fingers tightened on his. "Maybe she's figured it out," she hoped softly. "She is supposed to be very smart after all."

"You're still worried," he repeated calmly. "And though you have all rights to be, John tells me you're very good at what you do. Pretty much everything you do."

Clinging to his hand as she brought it to her stomach, Elizabeth met his eyes calmly. "You won't hold it against me if I wish he was here?"

"Nah," Jack promised with a wink. "I wish he was here too," he agreed with a quick nod of his head. "I'll give him a hard time when we get home. Go extra on the guilt, don't you think?"

"Okay," she whispered softly back and that agreement made him wince all the more inside. Usually she fought with him longer before he made fun of her husband.

"Be back."

Jack nearly ran into Sam on the jumper bay floor. "What did I say about running in the halls Carter?" he chided and leaned in to kiss her cheek. "Save us yet?"

"No, sorry," she replied quickly looking faintly flushed. "Working on it though, from what I remember from McKay's initial reports, we should have company in the next few hours."

"We're hidden," Jack added with a nod. Content that his plans would work, he took the radio from her hand, grinned and started to return to Elizabeth. "I need to keep an eye on her. Smart move with the radios."

"Jack-"

He answered as he turned to back to her. "Yeah?"

"Kiss me again?" she begged as she held part of his jacket. The request for affection was mildly out of place, just enough that he took his time kissing her and found her searching for more than his touch.

"Carter?"

"I was waiting until we got back to Atlantis," Sam started to explain as if she was searching for the right thesis statement in her mind. "Thought it might be better if we were home."

"And?" he waited impatiently with her hands on his shoulders.

"I know we talked about it," she kept verbally looking for what she wanted. "I know you wanted to talk about it more before we--"

"I hate talking."

"I know," she added as she sorted thoughts. "I wanted to talk to you more, before I got to this point. I'm not really ready to tell you."

Jack moved his hands slowly up her back until they rested on her shoulders. He opened his mouth and then thought the better of it. He followed her eyes until she smiled sheepishly.

"I'm pregnant."

His hands tightened suddenly on her shoulders as if he was afraid she was going to fade from his grip. His lips twitched, then smiled, then smirked in exasperation. His eyes searched her face as if he needed to reassure himself that it was her in his arms. His second wife, his second chance at living what he'd lost the first time.

"John's a dead man," Jack muttered darkly as his right hand ran through her hair to cup the back of her neck. Before she asked or elaborated his lips were covering hers and keeping her from speaking. He had a way of saying everything he couldn't in a brush of his hand. His thumb ran over her ear and he crushed her to his chest.

"John?" she demanded confused as he took her face and shook his head.

"Complicated," he explained as he put the thought out of his mind. Holding her face so he could stare at her uninterrupted, Jack found what he wanted and crushed her back into his chest. "You okay, Carter?"

"Yeah," she murmured into his shoulder. "Kinda foggy, but I'll figure it out."

"Sam-" he replied as if it were a password to some puzzle. "Take it slow."

Licking her lips helped her focus on something that wasn't the way he was looking at her. "I'm fine," she assured him as she stared back towards the jumper. "Elizabeth?"

"Quicker is better," Jack answered as he forced himelf to let her go with a sigh. "But it's not an emergency, I know it's going to be awhile."

Shaking herself out of the moment, Sam finally gave into her curiosity. "You know?" she began grilling him as she started to feel it out in her head. "What does it have to do with John?"

"He'll be here in just over an hour," Jack admitted as he stared at his boots. "I'm going to kill him for not telling me about--" Sam's eyes made him stop his rant halfway through. He's been through this before. The expedition arrives, McKay helps you get us back where we belong, John helps me deliver the baby."

"You?" Sam's eyebrow went up in surprise. "Practicing already?"

"Remind me again that I like you," he quipped back as he took her hand and held it. "While you get the fairly easy job of figuring out how to send us back, I have to explain to one rather confused Major John Sheppard that in the rather near future he's in love with his boss, and she's having his child. As a bonus, he gets to skip ahead to that part, about a week after he met her."

"Not a good day for him," Sam agreed as she ran the scenario through his head. "So that's why they--"

"Yeah," Jack interrupted as he stared towards the jumper. "John told me about it a few days ago. As long as he and Colonel Sumner are the only ones to see or know Elizabeth is here, it'll result in the same timeline we know. At least, that's what he thinks anyway."

She played with his fingers as she strung her thoughts into a neater line. "Did I tell him anything to tell me?"

"'Bounce'," he answered with a shrug. "Seemed like a stupid message to me, but it's your message to you, mean something?"

"Possibly-" she faded as she started thinking instead of speaking. "I'll go watch for the others."

Jack's hand pulled her closer again, instead of watching her leave. Hugging her for the third time, he kissed her forehead before he let her out of his site. "Radio?"

Sam nodded quickly and tapped her pocket. "Sumner and Sheppard?"

"McKay can know you're here, just try not to mention Elizabeth," he suggested as he watched her disappear down the stairs. "Don't let McKay get on your nerves too much, remember he'll be gone for a year."

"I'll try," she yelled up back to him as she headed down the stairs to the transporter. If McKay knew she'd be here, that would explain why he'd been so strange before she left. Her mind reminded her how many times John had put himself in harm's way. He'd known he'd survive, not that he was that reckless, he'd just had the luxury of knowing he'd make his decisions and that they'd work out.

It explained some of his smugness, Sam realized as the transporter deposited her back in command. Jack said she'd needed McKay to figure it out and her head hurt. Her head actually physically hurt and that type of headache was new to her without it being the result of a huge expenditure of energy. Sitting on the floor by the console made the dizzy feeling of her head fade slightly, her heart was still beating too fast, but that was just nerves.

Jack had taken it pretty well. She'd meant to do something better, more meaningful, but it hadn't worked out that way. She should have expected that more than a moment between them where anything worked out the normal way. Setting her alarm for an hour, Sam did the entirely selfish thing and put her head on her bag as she lay on the floor. This once, she could trust that the timeline knew what it was doing.  


* * *

The alarm of the 'gate opening when off before her watch did and Sam lifted her head to see the 'gate room fill with blue light. Waiting out of sight before the consoles, she listened as people started to arrive. Hearing the wonder in their voices was distinctly odd, as was hearing Sumner's voice again. He was ordering a sweep.

Sam tapped the radio in her head and tried not to sound like she'd been asleep. "Jack, they're here," she whispered into the radio.

Hers clicked twice in response, but he didn't speak. Worry for Elizabeth shot through her as she pushed her bag towards an out of the way corner and smoothed her hair. It wouldn't look right if she was asleep when McKay found her.

It was McKay and Doctor Weir, both from three years previous, who lead the group up the stairs into the control room. Weir was carrying her backpack with the straps undone, she went past Sam without seeing her in the darkness and put her pack down in her office.

It was almost like watching history happen around her, McKay ran over the consoles and touched the one she'd already activated in surprise. "Someone's here!" he called as he nervously clutched his gun. Weir was immediately back over the bridge to meet him.

Sam sighed and put her hands up. "It's a long story McKay," she began as she watched McKay's pistol shake slightly in his hand. "Why don't we go into your office, Doctor."

Weir, the thin, shocked version of Elizabeth with much shorter hair dumbly pointed Sam into the office she'd just claimed with her bag. "Colonel Sumner?" she asked as she stared at the different design of Sam's black BDUs and seemed to be trying to figure it out.

"Major-" Sam nearly had to bite her lip to keep herself from saying colonel, "Sheppard as well, please. It would be nice if I only had to go over the story once."  


* * *

"So," McKay began as he rolled his eyes. "You want me to help you find a program an Ancient hid in the computer ten thousand years ago and activate it with enough power left in the ZPM that we can find a way to send you and General O'Neill back to the right time?"

"That's about right," Sam sighed and stared at Weir for help.

Weir looked at McKay and nodded simply. "She says we'll be safe when this program activates, and we'll have enough time to do what we're here to do and get them back at the same time."

"We'll be draining the ZPM completely!" McKay protested as he stared from Weir to Sumner. "We'll be trapped."

"The timeline remains, right?" Sumner asked as he watched his marines move their cargo through the glass.

"Yes," Sam promised him as she watched Weir's eyes end up on Sheppard. "This is the way it has to be."

"Do you believe her?" Sumner asked politely turning back to Weir. The doctor did her best not to look startled. Weir's eyes searched Sam's face and fixed on the wedding band she was wearing. Something in that seemed to convince her.

"Please help her all that you can," Weir ordered all three men. "I'll keep control limited to the two of you for the time being. Unless you need help?"

"Radek," Sam asked immediately before she corrected herself. "Doctor Zelenka would be useful."

Weir nodded slowly as Sheppard and Sumner stood and headed for the bridge across to control. "Please send him up," she asked Sumner as she watched McKay complain under his breath to a console.

"Yes ma'am," Sumner replied easily. He didn't know what to make of the situation, and like most marines Sam had met, he wasn't letting that bother him. "Sheppard--"

"Actually," Sam interrupted him as she tried to shake the headache that wouldn't die out of her head. "General O'Neill might need him. Could I?"

Sumner seemed almost pleased to let Sheppard out of his sight. "By all means," he replied easily. "Sir," he added as he remembered that she was a rank above him.

"Sir?" Sheppard wondered in surprise. "What can I do for the general?"  


* * *

Elizabeth clung to him as if sinking into her chair would put her head below water, she gasped and that sound cut through him almost as badly as her hands were digging into his arm. The sob came as soon as she had breath again and Jack was at a loss so he held her. He rocked slowly in the doorway into the cockpit of the puddle jumper.

By the time he'd finished with Sam, Elizabeth was standing up, clinging to the control panel and having a hard time pretending she was just tired. Half-an-hour after that he was desperately wishing John had let him stuff an entire bottle of morphine into his pocket. She hadn't hit him, Sara had hit him and he supposed he almost deserved this more. He'd let Elizabeth go. He hadn't argued with John and let her go through this whole mess because he believed in timelines.

More hoped than believed they'd remain lines and not tangle the way they had here, but Jack was doing his best to hold it together. Her water hadn't broken, but she was still already covered in sweat. What started on her hairline was covering her face now, and Elizabeth had removed her jacket, and if he hadn't been there he thought she might have taken her t-shirt off as well. His jacket was stuffed towards the back of the jumper, just to keep it out of the way. He remembered vividly the amount of goo having a baby generated, and he wanted to have something reasonably clean to throw on when this was over.

Getting her to drink from Sam's emergency water bottle was nearly all he could do for Elizabeth other than keep her on her feet, braced between himself and the wall. "It was slower-" she panted as he held the water near her mouth. "Evie took her time."

"John was a good solider," he remembered softly. "Poor guy didn't sleep for three days."

Her eyes teared more than just out of frustration and pain as she let him pour the water into her mouth. "You're okay," John reminded her as he watched tears brim in her exhausted green eyes.

"It's only been two hours," she chided herself for her exhaustion and lowered her head to his shoulder. "I can't--"

"You're fine," Jack soothed her the best he could. "I've got an insider on this one. You're fine. Kid's gonna be fine too."

Shuddering as she breathed in, Elizabeth tried to agree with him. Jack put his hands on both sides of her stomach, feeling for the hard parts that were the important bits of the baby before she became unreasonable again. He usually got about three minutes before she couldn't handle him touching her. This time he found the hard round spot that he was convinced was the head. It was back, the way it was supposed to be, a hard, round ball beneath his hand just above her public bone.

"Sorry," he murmured apologetically. "I know I'm getting a little touchy-feely on you."

"It's okay," she promised as she nodded and made an attempt to look at him. Elizabeth managed a ghostly smile. "I won't tell."

"So, you know I get to try this on my own," he began in an attempt to distract her. "Sam just told me."

Her ghostly smile burst into something real. "Really?" she asked breathily focusing on his eyes. "That's--" her words were lost as she stiffened. The pain overwhelmed the breath in her throat and she had to use her strength to keep her feet. Beneath the hands h hadn't moved yet, Jack felt her muscles tighten in bands, as if her flesh were stone beneath his skin.

"Thanks," he mumbled towards her hair. The sweat was running down her neck, soaking her shirt. Elizabeth kept her eyes shut, as if opening them only reminded her John wasn't here. Her desperate cry of pain turned into a moan and Elizabeth let him hold her up. The fact that she let him, made his heart skip a beat.

"You're going to be good at this," she stuttered as she fought to catch her breath. "Done it already."

"Yeah," he replied gently feeling the muscles relax in her stomach. "It's good of you to make me practice."

Elizabeth sank lower and he helped her get down to the floor. "Try to be helpful," she said weakly. Panting for a moment, she took the time to think. "Sam?"

"Happy," Jack promised with a quick nod of his head. "Really happy."

"John was happy," she told her as he tried to get comfortable next to her. "Once I stopped throwing up, and we got home safely, he was so happy."

"Guys like babies," Jack quipped with mild amusement. "We can't admit it much, so you don't hear it, but we love the little guys."

She spared the energy to chuckle. Slumping against the wall and him as she relaxed, before the next contraction hit her. "Don't-" she began weakly, "-don't take this--"

"I'm not John," he finished for her as he offered himself as a brace. "I wish I were."

Elizabeth slipped forward, falling against him as the wall became too uncomfortable. Jack moved quickly to keep her elbows from hitting soft parts of his anatomy. He caught her up and held on as her breathing turned into painful sobbing.. He wasn't sure if it was grief or labor, but he knew he had to hold on because that was what he could do.   


* * *

Major Sheppard was having a fairly odd day. First, he'd been prepared to leave Earth forever, and that seemed all right in and of itself. He was part of a good team, Sumner was supposed to be one of the best commanders out there, and though he couldn't stnad him, the civilians were pretty interesting. Especially Weir, there was really something about her trying to be so idealistic in the angry universe he'd just found out about.

He'd been trying to wrap his mind around the city and the steps that lit up as he walked on them when Colonel Carter had shown up. She didn't belong there. She was literally out of time and their mission had changed from discovering the city and setting up a base to getting Carter and O'Neill home.

He wasn't much use at that. He didn't know much about time loops or black holes or all the other science people like McKay were here for. He followed Carter because she outranked him and because Weir had told him to go. He was okay with that, they were heading into the part of the city that had interested him the most since he'd heard the comm traffic.

There were space ships on Atlantis. Actual, real life, ancient space ships and he was going to get to fly them. He was trying to decide why the Ancients had made space ships look so much like space-going RVs when Sam spoke into her radio. In the empty space in front of him, something shimmered into life. It appeared out of midair in a shifting haze that coalesced into a space-going RV. John was wondering if the door would open in the same, crazy shimmering way that the RV had appeared when it opened with a simple, mechanical whine.

It opened up, like a hatch, and someone inside was in pain. Either General O'Neill was torturing the woman with her arms around his neck on the floor of the craft, or something was terribly wrong.

Sam left him and went to the woman, and Sheppard couldn't help wincing as she screamed. Something was vaguely familiar in her voice. She was incoherent, babbling to Jack as she tried to free herself from his grip. Through Sam and Jack trying to make sense of something, he heard the woman say something he recognized.

"John-" she pleaded as Sam traded places with Jack temporarily. "I want John." Her voice was harsh, hoarse and exhausted. Was it her screaming? Was she screaming for him?

"This isn't going to make a lot of a sense," Jack promised as he pulled Sheppard back towards the hatch. "I'm from the future, Sam's from the future, she's--"

Elizabeth cried out in pain and Sheppard realized it was Weir. Instead of the pale, slender, serious Doctor Weir, this future woman was reddened with her struggle. Her stomach was swollen outward, and Sheppard startled backward. He'd never seen a woman that pregnant. One of her hands was twisted in Sam's shirt and the other splayed out in a desperate struggle against her pain. Her breasts were rounded and swollen and there was a softness in her face Weir didn't have.

The anguished cry tore out of her throat, as if she were trying to strangle herself with it. Sam stroked her hair, wiped her face with a spare shirt from her bag, and tried to keep her calm. There was a grief in Elizabeth's eyes that was absent in the present Doctor Weir. Something vital was missing from her as she tried to release her child from her body. Something was sapping her strength and she had nothing to spare.

When her eyes hit him, his world changed. Sheppard had heard of those moments, had read them in books but it hadn't been enough to make him believe. Elizabeth's eyes reached in and reformed his heart as if he were glass and he could be returned to the molten state in which he'd been formed. Her hand released Sam and pushed her away. When Sam didn't move, Elizabeth struck out.

Sheppard caught her hand. Instead of hitting him, or fighting him as she had Sam, Elizabeth melted towards him. Her grief rushed through her flesh towards him in a flood of longing. Her hand went to his face and he caught the other as she fell into his arms. "John," she repeated desperately. "John, it's coming."

"It's okay," Jack said patiently and nodded for Sheppard to repeat him.

"It's okay," Sheppard repeated as Elizabeth slipped further into his arms. "It's okay," he repeated again. She quieted and her breathing began to return to normal. "Is it mine?" he asked feebly staring at Jack.

Jack nodded once calmly. "Yeah, someday. Your second."

"Second?" Sheppard mouthed as he started taking off his tactical vest. He set his gun aside as well and let Elizabeth fall into his lap.

Jack lowered himself just over his head. "I need to talk to Sam, Elizabeth's fine. She just needs you to be here. I'll be right back and we'll do this thing."

"Yes sir," Sheppard agreed as he tried to wriggle out of his belt. "I'm sorry," he apologized to Elizabeth as he helped her settle between his legs.

"Sorry?" she asked weakly turning her head towards him.

"I'm not yours," Sheppard offered as honestly as he could. "I wish I were--" he started as he felt the sweat of her sink into his clothes.   


* * *

"How's she?" Sam demanded as they snuck around to the side of the jumper.

"How are you?" Jack asked in return. There was sweat on his face and the entire front of his shirt was plastered to his chest. His boots were damp too, and something clear had soaked through his trousers. on the left side. "Sam--"

"I love you," she blurted suddenly pushing him back towards the side of the jumper. "I have a new headache," she explained with a shrug. "Haven't had this kind before."

"How-?"

"Seven weeks," she answered before he finished.

"Nausea?"

Chuckling, Sam shook her head. "Not like Elizabeth."

"Dizzy?"

"Not like they say," she answered thoughtfully lowering her head to his cheek. "I thought it might be like Daniel after a few too many beers, but it's more like nitrous oxide, or a really nasty case of jet-lag."

"I thought you didn't get-"

Sam kissed him lightly before answering, "I do now."

"Last question," Jack began kissing her more heartily.

"I have to get back to work--" she pleaded through his lips.

"Happy?"

Looking down at herself before she looked up, Sam nodded as if she were shell shocked. "New kind," she explained slightly. "Kind of fuzzy-"

"-love you," he finished when Elizabeth began to scream. Jack's kiss was goodbye and good luck and his hand lingered in hers just long enough for her to squeeze it. "You probably don't want to watch. You'll get scarred and want a c-section or something."

"Are you-?" she asked as she held him back.

"I'm ecstatic Sam," he promised her with more honesty than he usually allowed himself. "Get us out of here, okay?"  


* * *

Doctor Weir was new to some of her team and Sheppard was one of the newest. She only had him because Jack had talked him into coming; that made her more concerned about why the future Jack needed him. The future Sam had McKay and Zelenka talking circles around each other, but unlike the Sam she remembered, this one was spending more time listening than talking.

This future Sam, the one with the wedding ring, was tired; Elizabeth saw it in her face. It wasn't an exhaustion she knew. She had seen Sam work herself to near breaking before, but something in this was different. Sam was being methodical, doubly careful that she understood everything that was being said.

McKay was frustrated and he was starting to become abrasive. Zelenka was more patient, he seemed to appreciate this new method of doing things, but they didn't seem to be getting anywhere. McKay was so annoyed he nearly lashed out at Sam when she called a halt. Sam sank gratefully into a chair and rested her head in her hands.

McKay was still complaining to himself, and Zelenka was talking to himself in Czech as they tried to reason with the computer. "We're looking for a few lines of code in a database of septillions," he ranted as he tossed his hands up in the air. "Do you have any idea what that's like? It's like picking a four-letter chunk of DNA out of the whole strand. We should just run down the ZPM and be done with it."

"Colonel Carter and General O'Neill need the ZPM to get home," Doctor Weir reminded him as she walked by. "That's more important, because they longer they stay here, the more they change our timeline."

"Maybe it's better this way," McKay suggested out of frustration. "Two Carter's can't be bad, right?"

"Figure it out," she ordered firmly as she touched his shoulder. "You can do it."

"I can do soduku too, that doesn't mean it's a good use of my time," McKay muttered under his breath as she passed and Weir decided to ignore him. Zelenka nodded to her and continued to speak in Czech softly.

"Are you all right?" Weir asked Sam as the blonde woman kept her head down.

"Dizzy," Sam complained cheerfully looking up. "Sorry, it's new to me I can't focus like I should. I haven't had a problem like this since I uh--" stopping suddenly, Sam looked chagrined. "Forget what I said."

"I'll try," Weir offered as sincerely as she could. "I don't remember it in the future?"

"It's a little complicated," Sam explained without giving anything else away. "I didn't know this was coming, so I must get home. Jack knew because John, our John, told him. So it he thought it would be all right to involve John--"

Weir nodded and passed Sam the small bag of pretzels from her MRE. "And Sumner?"

"Rank," Sam shrugged and tried a pretzel tentatively. "Thank you."

"So far, these are my favorite," Weir remarked down towards her pretzels.

Sam grinned and shook her head slowly. "I meant for letting me steal your scientists, but I appreciate the pretzels too."

'Do you need anything else?" Weir asked as she searched Sam's face. There was joy beneath her exhaustion and that made her doubt it was an illness.

"Oh no," Sam said as she contemplated dragging herself back to her feet. "I shouldn't even be--"

"McKay needed a break," Weir reminded her gently as she gave up the pretzels on got to her feet. "He has food now, he'll be more reasonable."

"Right," Sam sighed and stared at the computer across the room who was refusing to give up any of her secrets. "I should have remembered that one."

Weir patted her thigh gently and smiled encouraging. "You'll get it," she promised with all the confidence she thought she should have. "I suppose we could just put you in stasis or something otherwise--" she trailed off as Sam made a strange face. "i'll let you get back to work."  


* * *

Elizabeth shook her head and tried to protest feebly what she worried he was about to do. "I have to look," Jack tried to explain. Holding Sheppard's utility knife, much sharper then the one he thought he'd have to use, Jack studied her clothing. The black BDU trousers she'd been wearing were soaked through with fluid, and so far just the fact that none of it had been blood was enough, but now someone had to check.

Sheppard had her against his chest. He was wedged into the jumper so his back was against one of the benches and his knees were up where Elizabeth could hang on to them. He'd been there well over an hour without complaint. He didn't say much of anything other than to encourage her when she lost her energy. Just having him there seemed to help; she seemed less lost, less afraid of what was happening to her.

"Can't push unless she'd dilated enough," Jack explained to Sheppard as he bent to slice along the seams of her trousers.

Digging through Sheppard's tactical vest, Jack dug up a flashlight and checked it. "I don't know if she'll let me," he wondered aloud as he touched her ankle.

Writhing away to curl on her side as another contraction hit her, Elizabeth screamed into Sheppard's lap as he tried to keep her head off the floor. Sheppard stroked her head, trying to hold her and keep her from hurting herself. "Breathe," he ordered her with more force than Jack had heard him use yet. When she finally drew a breath, it filled her chest so quickly Jack worried she'd crack a rib.

"you might have to do it," Jack sighed and turned the knife in his hand. "I don't think she'll let me."

"She doesn't know me," sheppard protested as he shifted her arm so it wasn't awkwardly beneath her. "Not me- me- I almost feel like I'm lying to her by being here. I'm not-"

Jack reached for her ankle and narrowly missed being kicked in the chest. Shaking his head as he sat back, he sighed. "She'll let you check. I think all you have to do is look, and if you can't see anything, you reach--"

Sheppard swallowed hard and went a shade paler. "Reach?"

Jack made a circle with his left hand and pushed his right through in a fist. "Things kinda open up," he ventured sheepishly. "If your hand fits up enough to feel anything hard, then she can push."

"And we want that?" Sheppard asked as he started to look more nauseated than Sam.

"Pushing's at the end," Jack nodded as he moved over closer to him. "Maybe she let me at this end," he hoped as he reached for Elizabeth's shoulders. "Hey, Elizabeth-" he spoke softly, trying to calm her as if she were simply injured. "I'm going to hold you and John's going to check the baby. We need you to hold still."

Elizabeth's eyes drifted up to his face and she squinted as if she were having a hard time recognizing his face. "Hurts," she hissed as she rolled her head back against his chest and bit her lip against the receding pain.

"I'll hold your shoulders," Jack explained as he nodded to Sheppard. The younger man didn't move. Glaring until the major knelt between her legs, Jack continued to stare at him. "John's going to cut your pants," he warned her as he reached up to hold her knee. "You're going to let him."

"John?" she asked pitifully opening her eyes at the name.

"Talk to her," Jack hissed over her head. "John's right there," he reminded her soothingly. "Do it quick," he snapped at Sheppard. "Before she has another one."

Sheppard swallowed and stared at Jack helplessly. He nodded once before he started to cut. "Do you remember how we met?" he asked her as the fabric tore beneath his hands and he exposed the pale skin of her inner thighs. "How surprised I was? Maybe you don't because you were busy with other things, but I-"

Jack nodded to him, pleased that Elizabeth seemed to be following Sheppard's voice. "Keep going," he encouraged firmly. "Make shit up if you have too, just keep talking-"

Sheppard halted as he reached in towards her skin. Elizabeth jolted back away from her touch and Jack started to feel her tense.

"-Stop!" he warned and twitched his head towards the knife. "Just hold her until it's done."

Pulling herself up and nearly out of Jack's arms, Elizabeth sobbed her way into the contraction. It was almost all Jack could do to keep her from falling out of his arms towards the less protected parts of the jumper. The sobbing built and heightened until she was actually screaming. He'd read everything Carson and Keller could give him. He'd even watched the damn tapes Walter was able to sneak out of the library for him, but nothing prepared him for the sound. There was a keening, grieving edge to it that tore at him. Part of her had lost hope and the pain was that much more intense because of it.

Jack wasn't even sure what he should be telling Sheppard to do. He didn't know what to do for that matter. The major's hands were shaking and Jack watched him drop the knife by her feet. Willing the younger man to work through what had to be one of the most gut wrenching moments of his life, he watched astonished as Sheppard seemed to get it. Insinuating himself between her legs, Sheppard lowered his arms to her and pulled her up. Firmly held against his chest, Elizabeth's scream softened.

Confusion reigned on Sheppard's face as Jack watched him, but he looked less nauseated. Jack put his hands on the those of the younger man and nudged him to hold her tighter. Lifting his own left hand he pointed enthusiastically at his ring finger, Then to Elizabeth. The second time he did it, Sheppard caught on.

He couldn't imagine being thrust into that kind of intimacy. The idea that he was now allowed, even expected to tell Sam he loved her in public tugged at his stomach in a way he wasn't sure he liked. Sheppard had it much harder. In the space of the last two hours, he had to swallow not only the fact that he was one day going to be in love with his boss, but that she would give him at least two children.

When Elizabeth started to calm, Sheppard lowered her back to Jack's waiting arms. "I have to look," he reassured her as he tentatively touched her thigh. "I might touch you, so don't- you know- I don't mean--"

"You turned on the star map," Elizabeth's tongue caught on some of the words. "Best."

Sheppard's face said couldn't remember what he'd been saying for a moment, he was so shocked that she was looking at him again. Moving her hand to his face, Elizabeth held him in her gaze. "I needed you."

"Cut," Jack ordered him harshly enough to startle Sheppard out of his trance. "Look."

"Right," Sheppard repeated as he pulled Elizabeth's hand down to his chest. "I'm right here," he promised her as he bent to catch the black fabric of her panties. "Right here."

The knife sang as it cut through the lycra. Sheppard closed his eyes for a moment before he stuck the flashlight into his mouth. For the moment, Elizabeth was calmly watching him. Her hand still on his chest. His eyes widened as he tried to categorize what he was seeing. A naked woman was entirely different from a naked woman in the final stages of labor. Jack watched him bite his lip and his emotions went sympathetic when Sheppard's eyebrows suddenly shot up in shock.

His hand slipped in and disappeared up to the wrist. Elizabeth made a tiny noise of discomfort and Sheppard started to apologize for causing her pain. "Sorry, sorry, did that hurt?"

Incredibly, she managed to chuckle hysterically for a moment. "Compared to what?" she coughed dryly. Jack stole her moment of coherence and managed to convince her to drink from Sam's water bottle.

Sheppard's already huge eyes suddenly widened still further. "I- uh, sir?" he blurted in surprise.

"Hard spot?" Jack asked as he set the water back down. "Like a baseball or something?"

Sheppard was biting his lip so hard Jack was worried he'd draw blood, but he nodded. "Think, uh--"

Elizabeth groaned and pulled her hips out of the way. Sheppard slipped past shock into sheer astonishment. Jack tried to imagine what it must feel like to have the muscles of her body close around his hand, and then he shook himself out of it. He didn't want to imagine. It was almost too intimate, like he was invading something that wasn't his.

Sheppard's hand slipped free and he stared at the clear mucus tinged with blood on his skin. He didn't seem to know what to do with it but he wiped it on his shirt and reached down to Elizabeth when she started to seize up in pain. His dry hand caught her face and turned her eyes up to his face. "I've got you."

"Could you feel the whole thing?" Jack asked as he sat Elizabeth up a little further and let her cling to Sheppard. Helping her up onto her feet so she was squatting helped get some of the pressure of her back and he felt some of her muscles relax against him. It was harder on him and Sheppard, but they were just going to have to make it work.

"Nose," he started pathetically as he stared at Jack helplessly. "I think I felt his- her- nose," Sheppard whispered back in awe.

* * *

  
Weir knew Sam had taken Sheppard to the the big bay full of the smaller space ships McKay was already wanted to call 'gate ships. Sumner was getting ready to head out for first 'gate address Zelenka had found. The colonel wanted Sheppard and even though Weir knew she should have asked Sam if he could come along, for some reason, she had to know what was going on.

Curiosity had always been one of her faults and this time it drew her towards the ship furtherest from the others because she knew it was that one. The hatch was closed and she felt around the ship for the release. It had to be somewhere, everything else in this city was so intuitive, it had to be simple. Eventually Weir found a simple switch she only had to click a few times to the right before the hatch obediently began to hiss open.

Someone inside was pleading so desperately that her voice had been reduced to a scream of agony. She was sandwiched between two dark figures, one had a gray head of hair she recognized as General O'Neill. He was all in black and crouching by the wall of the jumper. The other figure was Sheppard, she knew him immediately by his hair.

The woman had her head buried in Sheppard's chest and she was crying. Her knees were out on either side of Sheppard's waist, and he was kneeling in front of her. Jack seemed to be responsible for keeping the woman's feet beneath her. The woman's stomach was swollen and the bulge that Weir's mind insisted was a baby near delivery was low on her hips.

She'd been in labor for some time already and that's why she was so distraught at Sheppard's instruction that she push. Her hair was long and heavy in sodden, dark curls around her face.

"Come on," Jack urged firmly. "You have to push now."

Lifting her head as she took a breath, the woman lifted her head; Weir felt the universe stall out around her as she locked eyes with the pleading woman. Her eyes were green and deeply familiar. Weir's rational part of her brain filed the thought away and let her emotions run wild with remained.

It was her.

Her hair had grown out and her face had filled out slightly with the extra weight of her pregnancy. Her lips were red because she'd been chewing on them throughout her ordeal, her skin was flushed and soaked with sweat but it was her.

It was her face. Her voice screaming to Sheppard- she called him John- that she couldn't. She couldn't push.

Sheppard's hands rose from beneath her to stroke her face with an affection that seemed to intimate for them. They were strangers, but he was caressing her- not her- but her- face as if he'd known her all his life.

Throwing her hands instinctually over her ears, Weir tried desperately to block out the sound of her own voice screaming in agony. It rang through anyway, the piercing cry tore into her like nothing else ever had. It shredded into her psyche and in that stalling of the universe around her, Elizabeth Weir swore she felt her own incredible torment rip through her.  


* * *

Marshall Sumner dropped his fist on the back of Doctor Weir's head hard and precisely enough that she dropped like a forgotten toy. Catching her as she fell with on arm, he dragged her over as he sealed the ship Twisting it once extra to the left, he jammed the outside release until it would no longer move.

He disliked having to resort to such measures. He actually was starting to respect the slim negotiator passed out in his arms and he hoped he hadn't actually hurt her. Swinging her feet up into his arms, he held her thoughtfully for a moment. McKay's announcement that he had finally discovered the failsafe had only been a few minutes ago. The second announcement that the city was rising to the surface was bound to follow.

Laying the unconscious Weir on the floor next to the ship, Sumner braced himself and waited. Even with the little ship shut, he could still hear Elizabeth's voice when the pain crossed a certain threshold. He had initially been glad Sheppard had drawn the duty of delivering the child. It might be good for the hot-shot to see some real world suffering. It was after he got a glimpse of her that his mind began to put things together.

There was already something between the doctor and the major. He'd been around long enough to know when two people had something. Sumner hadn't felt it enough to bet that the two of them would be having a baby so quickly, but he wasn't about to argue. Timelines were something he'd learned to steer clear of in his time at the SGC.

Now he supposed he'd have to watch as the inevitable love story followed this incident. Sheppard's crush was going to explode, once he got over the initial awkward feeling that he already knew too much about her, he'd ask her to dinner. It wouldn't be too long after that that Sumner's newest discipline problem would be crawling to morning exercises out of the good doctor's quarters.

McKay's voice echoed over the public address system. "Everyone hang onto something, this might be a little bumpy," he ordered with the same grumpy efficiency Sumner thought was going to make him an asset to the team.

The entire city lurched, like an explosion had suddenly forced them towards the surface. In the windowless bay, most of the rising was wasted on Sumner, but he had his excuse for the welt that Weir was going to have to deal with when she woke up.   


* * *

Sam had slightly more than enough power to dial Earth once and maintain a wormhole the point three seconds it was going to take them to rematerialize. She didn't have the slightest idea what to do with it, her headache had become nasty enough the the bag of pretzel's Weir had given her were in danger of decorating the floor of the command center.

Closing her eyes for a moment and rubbing her temples, Sam forced herself back to work. She had a puzzle and she was damned if she couldn't solve it.  


* * *

The jolt of the city rising from the sea knocked Jack off-balance, and Sheppard had to quickly drag Elizabeth to her feet to keep her from falling to the deck with him. Clinging to her to keep her up, he realized, insanely, that he liked the feel of her in his arms. The panting, sobbing of her breathing in his ear was something he had taken to heart.

Jack recovered and added his strength to Sheppard's. Between the two of them, they managed to hold Elizabeth up until the shaking slowed. The contractions were viciously longer in duration then they left Elizabeth time to recover.

"No," she pleaded again in anguish. "I can't- I-"

"Push," Sheppard ordered as he eased her back into a squat. "Push for me."

Jack's hands on her shoulders kept her balanced, but she was loosing strength with each contraction. "I'll catch," Jack promised as they slipped her towards the dividing wall between the cockpit and the body of the jumper. Reaching up, Jack closed it suddenly, and slid out from behind her. "You hold her head, keep her with us."

"Elizabeth," Sheppard begged as he listened to her breath in. "Now," he urged gently. He hadn't known she could make the sounds the edged out of her mouth. The primal, grunted shriek that accompanied the worst of her contractions felt like it was cutting into his flesh. "With me," he coached as she tightened all the muscles of her body in the supreme effort he was demanding of her.

Something splashed at his feet, and new fluids gushed to the join the others the floor of the jumper. The wet stink of the air was part of him as much as the sound in her chest. Sheppard was caught, trapped with her and until they had the baby, he was going to be there in her eyes.

Jack was reaching around his legs, reaching towards something he couldn't see through the roundness of her stomach. That roundness was flattening out, disappearing into her hips.

Elizabeth pushed without being bullied. Gasping in his ear, Sheppard heard her howl of despair break back into speech.

"I love you," she mumbled into his neck. "I love you," she repeated over and over as the baby slipped into Jack's hands. It was a wet, watery sound, like ice breaking and falling into the bay by his father's house.

Fluid ran from her body and dripped slowly onto the floor of the ship. Jack grunted as he angled his hands and tied a piece of string around the cord. Elizabeth was caught in his neck, past her experience to a place where she was entirely lost in her love for the man who had fathered that child.

He didn't belong there, Sheppard realized painfully as the child started to whimper. Jack was wiping the tiny red thing with a t-shirt of Sam's and Elizabeth was collapsing into his arms. He lay back on the deck, letting her fall, eyes closing against his chest. Just listening to the baby's whimpers develop into full throated cries of anger and frustration was enough to make her smile peacefully.

"I love you," Sheppard offered back with his heart naked under the words. It was desperately wrong, and yet, somehow, it was exactly what needed to be said.

Jack was cradling the baby to his chest, staring down at it in amazement as the warmth of his body made it hush. "Girl," he admitted incredulously. "All the parts and big blue eyes."

Elizabeth's mouth trembled into a smile. "Hold her," she directed Sheppard without opening her eyes. "Hold her- she can eat, then she'll hush."

"Eat?" Sheppard repeated as she stared at her breasts. The black t-shirt Elizabeth had been wearing was too wet to pull off of her, so Jack returned the knife to his hand. Cutting the shirt from her breasts, Sheppard felt her kiss his cheek weakly as he tried to free her breast from her bra. The clasp took him three tries, because his hands were shaking, but it finally slid free.

Peeling the bra from her skin, freed a dark nipple and between the two of them, he and Jack managed to get the infant to a place on his chest were she could feed comfortably.

Elizabeth moved one of her hands to rest on his stomach, but she seemed nearly unconscious from the effort. Jack rearranged her clothes, tried to keep her comfortable. "Let her sleep," he suggested as he drew himself up slowly. "I want to check on Carter."

"Stay here, sir?" Sheppard asked in a pained whisper. Elizabeth was nearly naked, half-asleep on his chest, and the newborn baby girl, who shared his DNA but wouldn't be his for another few years, nursed peacefully just to the right of his heart. "Is that right?"

"It's your family," Jack waved away the formality of time as he stretched and started to make his escape from the jumper. "What does it matter when they're from?"  


* * *

Sumner set Weir down on the bed in the infirmary. It was still a mix of dust cloths and half set up medical equipment. "She missed the announcement," he explained gruffly as Beckett started to fuss. "Must have hit her head pretty good, went down hard."

Peeling back Weir's eyelids, Beckett checked her pupils and shook his head. "Concussion, not bad though," he promised as Sumner waited with a touch of guilt. "She'll have a nasty headache when she wakes up. Might be a little foggy on the details as well."

"That's all right," Sumner decided with enough of a smile to calm the doctor. "Tell her I'm leading a mission to that planet McKay found and that I was careful."

"Aye," Carson replied with a nod. "Will do."

"Doctor?" Sumner remembered as he stopped in the doorway. "Sheppard will be down shortly. Let him stay with her."

"Colonel?" the doctor asked confused.

Shrugging as he headed down the corridor, Sumner called back. "I think he'll want to."  


* * *

  
Jack tried to ignore the weird looks he was getting as he hurried up towards Sam. He unreasonably needed to see her. Either because he was emotionally and physically exhausted, or he was actually as sentimental as he thought he could never be.

Sam had her head down and her hands weren't moving on the console. McKay was discussing something with Zelenka, and no one noticed as he moved up behind her. She couldn't have heard him, but Sam instinctually backed away as she lifted her head. "Jack-" she moaned slightly before turning on her heel and running for the balcony behind the control room.

"Damn," he whispered to himself as he followed her outside in time to watch her retching over the railing.

"Stay back," Sam warned as she fought for the breath to keep him away. "There's something on you."

"Lot of things I bet," Jack realized belatedly and kicked himself for not showering or something before he'd stupidly come up to see her. "It's a girl," he explained as he listened to her vomit everything that was left in her stomach and sob for a moment as she sucked in air. "Kinda squirmy little red thing."

"Everything okay?" She gasped still staring down over the edge of the balcony.

Jack stared at her and tried not to picture her in that amount of pain. "We're not having ours in a puddle jumper," he promised himself. "Don't care if you have your heart set on it already, but no puddle jumper." he paused and leaned over the railing. The sea air was making his clothes stick chilly to his skin, but he needed to be braced. "I watched Charlie- I mean, I just watched the doctor lift him up I didn't see-"

Wiping her mouth on the back of her hand, Sam swallowed and met his eyes.

"There's all this slimy stuff," Jack rubbed his hands pathetically on the back of his things, where his trousers were still dry. "Elizabeth's screaming and Sheppard's got the worst of it because she can't tell the difference between him and the right John. I never saw her that way--"

"Naked?" Sam teased ruthlessly as she sank to the deck and leaned back against the railing as she smiled at him.

"Well that too," he smirked and rolled his eyes slowly. "It's like she wasn't just her, she was someone- something-" Jack paused and made sure he was downwind of her before he sank down. Yawning as he watched he smile broader at him, he grinned back. "She was past being Elizabeth. If that makes any sense, at all."

Nodding slowly, Sam slipped her hand across the deck towards him and kept smiling. "You're trying to make sense."

"Everything just opened and then she was in my hands," Jack blurted sheepishly reaching for her fingers. "Is this far enough away?"

"It's the blood," she excused herself and tried to soothe him at the same time. "Guess I'll have to stay away from blood for awhile. I can smell it all over you."

He nodded and smirked at her. "Not mine," Jack insisted as he tried not to yawn again.

"Might be mine," she pointed out thoughtfully teasing him. "Someday."

Shuddering, Jack shook his head. "One thing at a time," he begged as he dropped his head to his knees. "I want the other end. Keller can catch, hell, John can catch, he'll owe me a few hundred cases or beer otherwise."

"You'd let John catch?" she asked innocently surprised by his readiness to let someone else see her naked.

"I'm expecting him to volunteer!" Jack taunted playfully turning his head to keep his eyes on hers. "I'm almost glad I saw this first. Get the whole shell-shocked first engagement jitters out when it's not my kid."

"I thought you were there for Charlie-"

"Not the same," Jack corrected her. "I had a mask and I watched. I held Sara's hand and tried to keep her from trying to kill me until they put her under and did the old slice and dice. More blood that way, less screaming and they just kinda lift the kid out. There's so real catching--"

"C-section?" Sam clarified as she settled her hand in his.

Nodding again, Jack was surprised to feel his eyes stinging. "I was back from the action," he explained without going into more detail. "He was blue and then he was pink and wailing. I didn't even hold him until he'd been cleaned first. Less messy."

"What is on you?" she wondered as she wrinkled her nose curiously.

"Don't wanna know," Jack shook his head and leaned back. "No c-sections," he requested as he stared skyward. "I- now- no repeating and getting me in trouble."

"No, sir," she teased as she winked.

"I like it messy," he admitted as the threatening tears actually beat his control in his left eye. "Just me, John and Elizabeth and they- they-" he searched for the words he wanted. "They had this- I don't know really, but- this moment together. You don't really get to be involved, when you're the guy. You don't do the vomiting and the getting kicked in the ribs. Hell, I used to think it was funny when Sara complained about it."

"I'll hit you-"

"I know," he agreed as he squeezed her hand as tightly as he could. "First time I really got to do something, I was the first thing that baby touched in this world. I'm covered in goo, but I was part of her birth. Sam, I did--" he trailed off lamely finally at a loss for words.

"Jack," she began as she let him see the tears running freely down her face. "I'd kiss you but I'd-"

"-Right," he finished for her. "Sorry about-"

"-'s okay," she murmured. "I love you."

"Yeah?"

"Very much, Jack," she promised him as the tears came faster. "Very, very much."  


* * *

Sheppard wasn't sure when he'd fallen asleep, but Jack was nudging his shoulder. "Hey," the general whispered softly enough not to wake Elizabeth. "Sam's done her genius thing. We have to go home and you probably want to take a shower."

His hands moved from Sheppard's shoulder to the baby and Sheppard almost didn't want to let him lift her away. She'd been on his chest nearly all of her short life and he thought she was safe there. Sam took the baby and held her to her chest. Too sleepy to bother crying, the infant snuggled into the new warmth of Sam.

Jack was in a borrowed t-shirt that read 'marines' and Sheppard wondered if Sumner had given it up. He had jeans as well and as Jack tried to help him shift Elizabeth up into a sitting position, Sheppard realized how wet and sticky he was.

"Elizabeth-" Jack murmured much more gently than he'd spoken to Sheppard. "Elizabeth, I'm going to pick you up."

"Wait," she asked sleepily and her hand feebly landed on Sheppard's arm. "I-"

"Okay," Jack nodded and gave her a moment. "Anything hurt?"

With Jack's and Sheppard's hands on her shoulders, they managed to get her sitting up. "Sore," she hissed when they left her on her own. Sheppard's hands returned when she looked at him. "I'm sorry-" she began weakly. "You're not--"

"Don't apologize," he insisted firmly. "Please don't, I- uh- I know I don't belong, and I wish I could have been him-"

"You were wonderful," Elizabeth murmured as she pulled him down and kissed him sweetly on the cheek. "You'd be proud."

"I suppose I'll see," he realized innocently realizing that he got to live up to this point.

"You're a good man," she assured him as they shakily got to their feet. Sheppard was doing up her bra when she kissed him on the mouth. His tiny noise of shock made Jack grin wickedly and Sam looked up from the baby to see what was happening.

"Your shirt is ruined," Sheppard apologized as a flush ran up his neck. "Pants too--"

"I have clothes," Elizabeth promised him as he grabbed his jacket from the corner and forced her into it. "I-"

"Take it," Sheppard insisted as he took a last look at the baby in Sam's arms. "You can give it back. When you see me, him- you know."

"Be good," Jack glared at him in mocking superiority. "And hey, sorry about your jumper."

Still watching Elizabeth as Jack made sure she was steady enough to walk, Sheppard asked, "Jumper, sir?"

"Uh, yeah," Jack looked chagrined as Sam gave him a dirty look over the baby. "You're going to call them puddle jumpers."

Sheppard looked surprised again. "I am?"

"Yeah," Jack nodded as he avoided Sam's dirty look. "He would have done it anyway."  


* * *

Beckett was putting his supplies away and wondering how exact the ancient scanners were when Sheppard snuck into the infirmary. Since he'd seen the major last, he'd showered and changed clothes and something less tangible had been altered within him as well. Beckett couldn't shake the feeling that something was irrevocably different in the man standing by Doctor Weir's bedside.

"I heard she got a concussion?" Sheppard asked as he hovered without touching her.

Nodding as he left the room he was intending to use as storage, Beckett peered over at him. "Sumner said she hit her head pretty hard, poor thing," he answered sympathetically. "No permanent damage, though she's going to have a nasty headache when she wakes up."

Sheppard looked at the door, then Weir and finally back at the doctor. His hands were in his pockets but something incredibly difficult was going on in his head. He stopped and started twice before he finally spoke. "Can I stay?"

"The colonel doesn't need you?" Beckett asked curiously watching Sheppard struggle with something new internally.

Shrugging as he looked around the infirmary, Sheppard found a stool in the corner and dragged it over to Weir's bed. "Nah, he's on a mission to meet the natives. I'm in charge of team two anyway. We go when he gets into trouble."

"Oh, it's like that, is it?" Beckett asked with a small smile. "Stay up late in the pub your last night on Earth, Major?"

Sheppard scratched his damp hair and shook his head. "No, just kinda had a weird day." He scooted his stool over closer to the wall and leaned against it. "How's medical going to be?" he asked politely watching Beckett move around.

"I think it's going to be lovely," Beckett chirped excited by all the technology. "I have scanners and some of the best medical computers I've ever seen. It's a good space, I haven't been in all the surgical bays yet, but the quarantine rooms are really quite advanced." He continued talking as he wandered the room, putting things away and getting his supplies exactly the way he liked them. With a roll of bandages in his hand for the shelf in the back, he looked back at Sheppard and realized the poor man was asleep. He'd slid forward along the wall and now his head was on the pillow just next to Weir's.

Grinning gently, he made a mental note of it, and went back to work.  


* * *

"It's actually quite simple," Sam explained as she tried not to go into more detail than Jack would listen to. "It's a little different than when we went back to nineteen sixty-nine. This time, we just dial a point somewhere approximately three light years from here, override the wormhole protocols that keep us from getting time shifted each time we dial and we 'bounce' back to our time."

"Simple, she says," Jack muttered to himself as he held Elizabeth a little tighter in his arms. She was lighter now, without the extra weight of the baby, but he was still a little out of shape to carrying her for long. "Why don't you just wave your hands and say 'I have a Phd in physics'-"

"Astrophysics--"

"Oh it's all hand-wavey anyway!" Jack corrected finally as he stared over at Sam. "Ready?"

McKay nodded and Sam nodded back. The baby was still clutched carefully in her arms and Jack wanted all three of them checked out as soon as they got back. Elizabeth was either exhausted beyond staying conscious for more than a few moments, or something was wrong with her he wanted fixed. Sam looked like death warmed over and she'd been close to vomiting again when Sheppard had helped them hose out the puddle jumper.

"Let's go home," Jack suggested when the 'gate whooshed open. "Before John decides he's going to kill me and the baby stops being so reasonable."

Staring down at the tiny sleeping face against her, Sam cooed at her softly. "She's barely cried."

"Give her time," Jack groaned and took a tentative step forward. "Soon you'll be wishing we'd left her here when we get stuck babysitting and she screams all night."

"So positive," she murmured to her husband as she started to walk into the event horizon.

The wormhole the entered flung them across space in one direction before they hit an intangible barrier and began hurtling backwards. The extremely disorienting sensation came to an abrupt halt when they emerged facing the wrong way. Sam swayed slightly and Jack steeled himself to keep his feet. The event horizon popped and dissipated like a bubble in front of him.

"That was weird," he muttered as he turned into the incoming swarm of the medical team. John, the right time's John, nearly stole Elizabeth from his arms entirely. In a look they shared a kind of acceptance. Time was back on the track they knew, the detour was over for now. "Take her," Jack suggested as he realized his knees were shaking. "Hurry."

Teyla had the baby now and Keller was already forcing Sam onto a stretcher. Adrenaline tasted metallic in his mouth as John lifted his wife from Jack's arms. Something was wrong with his knees, Jack realized slowly as he watched Sam's eyes roll back up into her head. The heat in the back of his head was winning out. As soon as the weight was gone, Jack gave in to the hot rush of oncoming unconsciousness.  


* * *

John was in bed with her when she woke up. Elizabeth was sure it was him, because she knew the way his arms fit around her. She hurt nearly everywhere and her breasts were aching as if they were about to burst. Her stomach had the slowly healing ache she remembered vaguely from the days after Evelyn. "John?" she tested her voice slowly as she moved her head towards him.

"Right here," he mumbled into the back of her head. "The girls are here too. Evie's on the other side of me," he assured her. One of his hands left her stomach and reached out towards something else in the bed. "The new one's here."

"I need to-" she groaned and moved experimentally. "I'm going to burst unless she nurses."

John chuckled and reached over to pull the infant within reach. "She's just been watching," he explained as he helped her pull the sheet down off her skin.

"When did I get naked?" Elizabeth asked as she sighed and felt the pressure start to ease.

"I did it," John said lifting his head and stopping the muffled sound of his words as he got his lips out of the pillow. "Once Jen and Carson cleared you."

"How long have I been out?" she wondered as she rolled over onto her back. Gasping when she found the bruises she'd given herself in labor, Elizabeth found John's gentle eyes staring down at her.

"Few hours," he answered as he kissed her cheek softly. "I missed you."

Raising her free hand to his face, she felt the stubble from a long night without shaving. "You were there," she offered as if it were a prayer of thanks. "You were with me."

"Didn't know what the hell I was doing," John teased as he kissed her slowly. He tasted the way she remembered, deeply familiar, how he was meant to taste. "But I was there."

"Couldn't tell me?" she asked as soon as her lips were free.

"Couldn't risk the timeline," John offered by way of apology. "I'm a little attached to this one. I knew things were going to work out. At least, until the part where you came home."

"It's all really foggy," she complained as his hand rested on her forehead. "I remember you and Jack but most of labor's blurry. If I wasn't empty," she smirked as he grinned at her and the baby attached to her breast. "I wouldn't know it happened. Except you. You're clear."

"Three Elizabeths converging in one place is hard on the timeline and the three yous," he pointed out. Kissing her forehead as he removed his hand, John made sure Evie was safe as he sat up. "Rodney said it must have been hardest on you. He thinks that's what sent you into labor."

"That and my ability to start having contractions at the worst time possible," she added self-depreciatingly sighing up at him. "Three Elizabeths?"

"The elder one was still in stasis," he counted off. "Then you arrived, then the younger- youngest you, the one who wasn't pregnant--"

"I understand."

"Remember that concussion?" John switched tactics as he rested his hand on his daughter's tiny back. "The one when the city rose from the ocean?"

"The first time you kissed me," Elizabeth reminded him with a tiny smile. "When you thought I was too out of it to remember."

"You'd just had my child," John offered defensively. "You'd given birth in my arms. I couldn't just--"

Kissing him again stopped his protests. "I walked in on you and me," she explained gently. "I thought it was a vision or a bizarre hallucination because I'd hit my head. I was freaked out for a long time. I'd wake up and have nightmares about myself screaming."

John's hand rubbed her knee thoughtfully. "You never told me what those were about."

Moving her head closer to him, she sighed contentedly. "When you started sleeping in my quarters they went away."

Lifting his daughter from Elizabeth's chest, John held her upright against his shoulder and smiled down at his wife. "Did I tell you Jack and I named her?"

"Jack?" Elizabeth grinned and closed her eyes for a moment. "You let Jack?"

"He caught," John reminded her when the infant burped and whimpered for a moment before he set her back down towards the other breast. "Figured he deserved it."  


* * *

Weir was certain someone had been kissing her. There was something in the back of her mind, something about the little space ships in the huge bay of the city, but her head hurt too much to stay on that thought. Instead she licked her lips and found them moist, as if someone had just lifted their mouth from hers. Reaching up to touch them, she groaned aloud as she accidently moved her head.

"Slowly," Sheppard's voice warned her from beside her head. "You took a nasty blow on the back of your skull. It's going to hurt."

"Already hurts," she moaned and slowly opened her eyes. Sheppard was in his off-duty clothes and for some reason he looked different. Had she ever really looked at him? His hair was a mess but it suited him. Weir was most drawn to his eyes. She hadn't really looked at his eyes long enough to realize they were so soft.

He settled onto the stool by her bed and resumed eating his lunch. It took her a few moments to realize he'd been waiting there for her to revive.

"How long?" she demanded as she tried to hold her head as still as possible.

"Most of the night," John said around a bite of a turkey sandwich. "All of the morning, part of today I guess. Colonel Sumner's met our bad guys, but he made us some allies too."

The screaming ache in her head went up a notch. "Bad guys?"

Pausing before he took another bite of his sandwich, John nodded quickly. "They're called 'Wraith' and according to Sumner and Beckett they're like space vampires. Real bad news, kinda feed on your life-force." Shuddered for a moment, he took another bite and set it aside as he reached for a little cup of jello.

"Feel like eating?" he wondered as he held up a spoon. "Beckett wanted you to try and get something down when you woke up."

Weir stared from him to the spoon and then back at his eyes. What was it about him that suddenly seemed so important? "Are you feeding me?"

"If you want," John agreed amenably. "Might move your head around a little less."

Trying to decide if he was serious or if this too was some awfully strange vision, Weir started to nod and then gasped in pain.

"Try not to chew," John warned as he put a tiny piece of jello into her mouth. "Just let it melt."  


* * *

  
"What did you pick?" Sam nudged Jack from behind as he lazily rolled to face his wife. "John let you name the baby and you picked?"

"Oh, right," Jack pretended to have forgotten. Staring up at the ceiling, he stretched languidly and then turned to his wife. "Nauseated?"

"Not this morning," she answered cheerfully sitting up and reaching for the cup of tea she had near the bed. "You're easier to handle when you're clean."

"I delivered a baby," he huffed as he rolled his eyes. "It's not exactly rocket science, where you stay clean in a lab."

"And you named that baby what?" she prodded him as she slid her foot along his leg. "Leia? Lisa?"

"I'm keeping 'Lisa' for us," he answered sighing as he sat up. "Any of that for me?"

Sam pointed into the front room of their quarters. "There's coffee on the counter," she reminded him with a lazy hand in that direction. "It's all yours for the next thirty-three weeks, well, thirty-one," she corrected herself. "Ever wonder why they add an extra two weeks to human gestation?"

"No, darling," Jack called as he poured himself a cup of coffee from the thermos and wondered how it had gotten there.

"Chuck," she called in answer to the question he hadn't asked. "He wanted to let us sleep in. Rodney's in charge this morning. John, Elizabeth, you and I all have the day off."

"Are these donuts?" he called as he made a victorious noise and attacked the basket. "Chuck brought us donuts?"

"He was in the infirmary when Keller announced I was pregnant," Sam reminded him as he returned to bed, donuts in hand. "I think he's being sweet."

Digging into a double chocolate donut with sprinkles, Jack made a sound of pure joy. "Can I marry him too?"

"He's second wife," Sam agreed pleasantly taking a donut out of the basket and nibbling on the sprinkles. "He cleans, I have the babies." Yanking his donut out of his hand, she dangled it in front of him and waited. "What did you name her?"

"Name equals donut?" Jack checked before he answered.

"Name equals donut," Sam agreed as she took a bite of his donut for emphasis.

Jack held out his hand and grinned playfully. "Kara," he gave up lightly. "Kara Sheppard Weir."

Handing over the donut, she lay back and grinned at her husband in surprise. "That's pretty and appropriate," she agreed in shock. "Wait-" she thought a moment longer. "Elizabeth doesn't watch?"

"Oh no," Jack replied as he chuckled and gleefully reached for a second donut. "She's never seen the show."

"You got Kara from-?"

"John liked it," Jack sputtered as he defended himself from her grab for his donut. "Elizabeth probably even thought it was pretty."

"Someday she might watch the show," Sam prodded him as she shook her head. "How's she going to feel-?"

"Kara Thrace is a perfectly wonderful, strong, intelligent woman--"

"You're full of shit," Sam teased as she tackled the donut out of his hand and straddled him thoughtfully. There was frosting on his lips as she kissed him. "But I love you."

Cradling her breasts as he sat up beneath her, Jack kissed his way down her chest. "-love you too, Sam."


End file.
